#74 - Wrestling with the Predator | Ian MacKenzie (The Mythic Masculine)

Today’s topic is a challenging one. A few weeks ago, numerous allegations surfaced regarding sexual misconduct by two prominent male musicians in the festival world: Lorin Ashton (ie Bassnectar) and Nahko, who I interviewed on this podcast last month. At the time of the allegations I decided to remove that podcast from my catalogue pending an accountability process. To make sense of this cultural moment, I invited my good friend and mentor in men’s work, Ian Mackenzie, back to the podcast to explore the theme of sexual predation through an archetypal lens. On the show, Ian offers a mythopoetic understanding of patterns of abuse in our culture specifically through the archetype of the Addicted Lover. We discuss restorative justice and the challenges of applying it to cases like this. We talk about our modern lack of the village, and the importance of initiating young men to understand the consequences of their actions. We discuss Cancel Culture as a kind of exiling that doesn’t serve to heal the wounds of predation or allow our communities to truly learn from our mistakes. Finally we look at the parts of ourselves that we wish to exile and the perils of losing intimacy with our darkest places. This conversation is simply two men wondering aloud about the causes of and solutions to sexual abuse. This is by no means an exhaustive analysis and we welcome any feedback to our conversation in the Life is a Festival Facebook group. There are also two prominent women in our community, Tina Malia and Elana Meta, who have written very powerful and public Facebook posts on this subject which are linked to in the show notes. Ian Mackenzie is the host of a stellar podcast called the Mythic Masculine. He is a documentary filmmaker whose works include Amplify Her, Scared Economics, Occupy Love, and the upcoming film Love School about the Tamera community in Portugal. If you feel moved by his work, please consider supporting Ian’s Patreon at patron.com/ianmack LINKS Ian Mackenzie: https://www.ianmack.com/ Ian’s Patereon https://www.patreon.com/ianmack Tina Malia’s post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2615226038736823 Elana Meta’s post: https://www.facebook.com/elanametajaroff/posts/10218498800325847 TIMESTAMPS :07 - Ian’s background in men’s work as a documentary filmmaker and podcast host. :13 - A definition of predation :17 - Our understanding of the allegations raised against Nahko and Bassnectar :23 - The consequences of the lack of initiation for young men in modern culture :28 - The archetype of the Addicted Lover :34 - The problem with Cancel Culture :40 - Our modern lack of a village :46 - The difficulties of applying restorative justice on a large scale :51 - What does it take to create a real community? :56 - The literacy of desire 1:00 - The patriarchal energy of the archetype of the tyrant father